The technical advancement of heavy armored/mechanized weapons and the necessity of providing responsive, effective fires throughout the supported commander's area of influence has created a need for enhanced rate of fire and reduced labor intensiveness of the crew. Presently, for large caliber cannon with interrupted screw block breech mechanisms such as 155 mm cannons and the like, percussion primers are loaded by hand. One primer is placed in the spindle primer chamber and the firing mechanism is thereafter manually moved over the primer in the ready-to-fire position. This has lead naturally to human errors and problems inserting the primer, especially when the light is dim. Lack of space and/or coordination are additional cannon problems associated with hand loading.
Until the present invention, there has not been an effective alternative to manual loading of primers. There is a great need for a device which can automatically feed live percussion primers and eject spent primer cases in large caliber cannon of 155 mm or more.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a device for loading primers in large caliber cannons and the like.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a device for feeding primers automatically in order to save time during firing cycles.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a device for automatically feeding printers which eliminates the need of one crew member, to thereby reduce crew size or provide additional availability for other tasks.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a device for automatically feeding primers to large cannons and the like which is safe, dependable, and easy to maintain.
Other Objects will appear hereinafter.